SCORPIONS' Setlist For 2024 Las Vegas Residency Will Include One 40-Year-Old Song That Has Never Been Performed Live

SCORPIONS, one of the most iconic and influential hard rock bands of all time, will return to the Las Vegas Strip in 2024 with a brand new exclusive headlining residency show in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their iconic album "Love At First Sting", performing the album plus all of their biggest hits. Promoted by Live Nation and Caesars Entertainment, "Scorpions - Love At First Sting Las Vegas" kicks off on Thursday, April 11, 2024 at Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The new show follows the band's popular "Sin City Nights" residency which sold out all nine performances at the venue in 2022.

In a recent interview with Las Vegas's KTNV Channel 13, SCORPIONS guitarist Matthias Jabs reflected on the "Love At First Sting" LP and the band's long career, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When the album came out in '84, we were doing everything on the basis of the success of the previous one, the 'Blackout' album, our first headlining tour ever in the States. But this is all more than 40 years ago now. And, yeah, we had a fantastic career, starting with 'Blackout' and 'Love At First Sting', first of all. I think the album stayed in the charts, in the Top 10, more than a year. The '80s were crazy and the '80s were very good for the SCORPIONS because it really made us extremely successful. And we are so happy that we can still perform worldwide, and especially now coming back to Vegas, our third residency, we are very excited to be able to play that album, 'Love At First Sting', in its entirety for the very first time in our long career."

Asked what the SCORPIONS have planned for the residency that will surprise even the band's most ardent fans, SCORPIONS singer Klaus Meine said: "There's a song on 'Love At First Sting', it's called 'Crossfire'. And it was almost like a political kind of song, saying, we're growing up, we're living in the middle of the crossfire between East and West, like where we grew up here in Germany, West Germany, so to speak, in a divided country with a Berlin Wall. So this song, to bring this up on stage and perform this live, it's a song we never ever played live because it's kind of complicated and it's a challenge, but at the same time we're excited about it and we can't wait to make this work. And I know for the fans, they were going, 'No way. I never expected to see this song [performed] live.'"

"Scorpions - Love At First Sting Las Vegas" performances are as follows:

April 2024:

April 11
April 13
April 18
April 20
April 24
April 26
April 28

May 2024:

May 1
May 3

Shows begin at 8 p.m.

In a recent interview with Justin Young of Monsters, Madness And Magic, Meine spoke about SCORPIONS' plans for the coming months and years. He said: "Well, we're still out there with the 'Rock Believer' tour. It takes us around the world. And even though we have a little break right now, we keep going next year, we pick it up. And we might come back to the United States and a lot of other places we haven't been on this tour so far and we keep going. And who knows if we go back to the studio at some point again. We never really talk about it. Right now, we're still doing 'Rock Believer' tour and we enjoy it a lot."

He continued: "There's so many rock believers out there. When you think, so many people in all those years said rock is dead because of grunge, because of hip-hop, because of rap, whatever it is. But no, it's not dead at all. There are millions of rock believers out there, and we can't wait to see them in 2024 and in '25, because it will mark the 60th anniversary of the SCORPIONS. That is something quite special. So right now, '24, '25 — next year we're on the road, and we put it all together right now. And we can't wait to see the rock believers out there again.

"The new album is still a new album, 'Rock Believer', and we can't wait to go out there," Klaus repeated. "And maybe we change a couple songs in the show. We'll see, we'll see. It's too early to say. And we can't wait to be out there next year. And for '25, yeah, it's 60 years. Hard to believe. There are guys, the next generation ahead of us, like THE ROLLING STONES, it's amazing to see what they're doing. Just heard, a couple of days ago, their new songs, and, man, they're rocking hard. That's pretty cool."

This past October, SCORPIONS founder Rudolf Schenker seemingly dismissed any talk of possible retirement but acknowledged that the band will not be able to continue indefinitely. The 75-year-old guitarist told Vikram Chandrasekar of Tales From The Road: "It's not a never-ending road. The road will be finished sooner or later; it's up to you and to our gods. But in 2025, that could be a great time for our 60th anniversary. 2025, it's the time when SCORPIONS is 60 years old. So, then, to celebrate 60 years of SCORPIONS could be a possibility, because I'm in contact with our very old drummer, who was playing on [SCORPIONS' 1972 debut album] 'Lonesome Crow', and the bass player, and use them also on stage to see the different kind of states we went through. Because we are very much connected still in all the different musicians, and that shows again, when we can make it, that music is always there for making friendships."

Back in May 2022, Meine told Jorge Botas of Portugal's "Metal Global" that there was no more talk of retirement within the band, as there was back in 2010 with what was purported to be a final album and a farewell tour that never quite took hold. "No, we scratched that word [retirement] out of our [vocabulary]," the now-75-year-old singer said. "It's not there. We don't think about it and we don't talk about it and we take it as it comes.

"We're just growing older and we do what we do and we hope our fans enjoy it as much as we do," Klaus continued. "But who would have thought we're still around after celebrating 50 years of being recording artists — our first album came out in 1972 and now 'Rock Believer' looks like it hits the big time with the fans and so many positive reviews from all over the world. And after all these years, who would have thought? And it's a wonderful thing.

"But all we know is [that] the road ahead is way shorter than what's behind us," Meine added. "And we never take it for granted — we never take success for granted. We work hard on what we do because we still love it and we still enjoy it. But it's what it is. And I think every artist knows what I'm talking about, because to go out there, play a great show for the fans and not let 'em down, it takes a lot of preparation, takes a lot of work. And being the singer, you try to make sure your pipes are in a good condition.

"It's a lot of things," Meine said. "And we don't know what the future will bring. Take a look at the next corner, and you never know what's going on. But right now, life is good. We have a great new album out there. And we have a lot of fun. We enjoy it."

Meine previously discussed SCORPIONS' aborted retirement in a 2018 interview with SiriusXM. "The thing is we have a much different view now," Klaus said. "And it's a young generation — that's the fuel that keeps us going, and it's really motivating.

"To be honest, every other year, you take a look around the corner: 'Can we do this?' 'Can we still deliver on the same high level, the way we used to do it?'" he admitted. "And that's the only way, and it's only fun if you can go out there and play a great rock show, wherever you do it. Like in the last couple of weeks, we had so much fun. But then you get sick on the road, like I did last year with the severe laryngitis. What can you do? There's not a chance. And then sometimes, of course, you ask yourself, 'How long can we do this?' Especially for singers — and I know I'm not the only one. But it's always, sometimes you ask yourself, 'Klaus, c'mon, how long can you keep up this level?' And then you go out there, everything feels good."

Circling back to SCORPIONS' 2010 "farewell tour" announcement, Klaus told SiriusXM: "Of course, we had our moment of doubt when we said, 'Okay. Maybe we should retire. Maybe this is a good moment.' And then we realized we were wrong, because there's still a lot of sting in the tail, so to speak, and it still feels good. There's such a demand for the SCORPIONS, and we're one of the few bands who play this global stage. If there wasn't this kind of demand, of course, there's no point after so many years, and you'd better go, 'Well, I go home and take it easy.' But there's such a strong demand and that really feels good and challenging — it's a challenge. Of course, you don't do it for the business. It's a good business, yes, but you don't do it for the business and for the money — you do it for the fun, you do it for what's inside of you, what's in your blood, what's in your veins, and that's the rock and roll music. And you wanna go out and play in front of an audience, because that's what it's all about."

SCORPIONS' only continuous member has been Schenker, although Meine has appeared on all of the band's studio albums, while guitarist Matthias Jabs has been a consistent member since 1978, and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee have been in the band since 2003 and 2016, respectively.

SCORPIONS' latest album, "Rock Believer", was released in February 2022. The album was recorded primarily at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany and was mixed at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany with engineer Michael Ilbert, who has earned multiple Grammy nominations for his mix work with producer Max Martin on albums by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.